


Only Sparks Remain

by FireFaceOutlook



Series: SaboAce Week, 2017 [7]
Category: One Piece
Genre: And Episode of Sabo, Finally!, M/M, Part 2 of Eye Contact, Part 2 of Soulmate AU, Spoilers for Dressrosa Arc
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-27
Updated: 2017-03-27
Packaged: 2018-10-11 10:03:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,309
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10462326
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FireFaceOutlook/pseuds/FireFaceOutlook
Summary: “But I still can't believe that crybaby became so strong...  Can you, Ace?”





	

**Author's Note:**

> **A/N: So this is an official continuation (aka part 2) of Eye Contact, as requested by** Rboooks **on Fanfiction. The prequel doesn't have to be read to understand this. This is a Soul Mate AU where people see colors after making eye contact with their soulmate and lose the color after their soulmate dies. What do you guys think? Please enjoy! Also, this is for _Day 7 of SaboAce Week: Free Day_.**  
>  **Warning: Spoilers for Dressrosa Arc and Episode of Sabo**

Sabo recalled vividly _sitting in the grass upon the upper slope of the small, isolated island. Before him stood two proud graves, the cape and hat upon them swaying in the breeze. Flower petals drifted around him, the grass – grey as bedrock – rustled under him, and the sun gleamed off of the sake in the three red cups – he knew they were red because he had asked Koala* to confirm the color for him – resting before the gravestone marked 'Portgas D. Ace'. He remained there, recalling Ivankov's thorough description of the events at Marineford, especially those that revolved around his brothers. He could almost see it, could almost feel like he witnessed it...but it just wasn't enough to quench the guilt in his stomach._

_“I guess both you and Luffy are mad at me,” he said lowly, voice quaking subtly. He inhaled sharply, pulling himself together to continue speaking. “I couldn't go save you...”_

_Sabo prided himself on not being one to cry, but he didn't bother to stop the sudden appearance of tears that ran down his face._

_“I'm sorry!” Those words were meaningless in the face of his failure to save Ace, he knew. He wished he could say them face-to-face instead. “I wish... I wish I could've seen you again while you were alive!” He wished he could've remembered his soulmate sooner and realized just how much he meant to him..._

_He wiped away the tears after a brief moment, then gingerly lifted one of the sake cups, eyes locked onto the orange hat that once belonged to his brother. “I'm gonna inherit...your will!”_

  


_There was something about this Lucy character... He had thought the small gladiator was done for, in the ring with such well-known fighters. He had put his bets on Don Chin Jao being the winner, until he took a closer look at the surprisingly strong fighter. Was that a...straw hat (poorly disguised) hanging against his back?_

There's no way...

_Lucy turned slightly to view the crowd and Sabo caught sight of an achingly familiar scar beneath the man's left eye._

That's...

_The cheers of the crowd seemed to fade away._

_“I see...” Sabo said quietly. “As I suspected, you are here, Luffy.”_

_He felt a bit guilty about not being able to recognize his brother sooner. Childhood memories of his time with Ace and Luffy danced in his mind; running through the forest, stealing ramen, fighting men in the alleyways..though the memories were tinted in grey instead of flush with color like they had been when they occurred. His lips quirked slightly, until he remembered the events of Marineford that Ivankov had reported. His fingers scraped against the stone of the window as he tried to hold together his splintering emotions._

_As the match dragged on, Sabo watched with eager anticipation as Luffy faced Don Chin Jao. He wanted to see his brother's strength with his own eyes. But he hadn't expected Luffy to have such a powerful spirit._

_“Conqueror's Haki...”_

_The combined haki had knocked the rest of the ring gladiators out cold. It was a fast-paced battle, but Sabo had no trouble keeping track of both of their movements. It was an amazing fight to witness. Of course, it didn't take long for the small amount of awe to be extinguished._

_“The Navy showed some good insight when they squelched the most evil of the lot,” Don Chin Jao was saying. “I mean Ace, of course, in the war two years ago. That fool had the demon's blood in his veins!”_

_An excruciating pain gripped Sabo's heart at the words, then insurmountable rage. How dare he talk so casually about Ace's death like that! Luffy obviously felt the same as he sent Chin Jao flying with a Hawk Rifle (and oh how Sabo wished he could join his brother and add in his own attack against the man). Luffy launched himself into the sky and, to Sabo's amazement, enlarged one of his fists, coating it in Armament Haki. Luffy's Thor Elephant Gun and Chin Jao's head-on (literally) attack collided with more Conqueror's Haki before Chin Jao's head suddenly spiked and he fell, head first, onto the ring, cracking it clean in half. The win belonged to Luffy! An uproar came from the crowd._

_Sabo smiled fondly as he looked upon Luffy's cheering form. Then he headed back into the depths of the Colosseum._

_“Now you're a man of 400 million, so you have so many enemies.” He headed down another path to avoid colliding with any of the gladiators. “But I still can't believe that crybaby became so strong... Can you, Ace?”_

_**“Hey, Sabo!”** _

_He stopped walking at the familiar voice a **nd turned, peering down from his spot in their tree-branch meeting place, and beamed. “Oh, Ace!”**_

_**“Sorry I'm late!” the other boy called, holding up his bag of loot proudly.** _

_**When Ace joined him on the tree, he dropped his bag next to Sabo's meager collection.** _

_**“Whoa! You got a lot! Way more than I did!” He flipped through a stack of belis. “That's a lot of money! How'd you get that?”** _

_**“I robbed some thugs,” Ace replied simply.** _

_**“Damn! You won again!” Sabo laughed as he tossed the money into their secret hole in one of the tree's thick branches.** _

_**“It doesn't matter if you win or lose. This is our 'pirate savings' that we'll use together someday.”** _

_**Sabo's heart felt warm at Ace's words. They had come a long way from Sabo chasing Ace and Ace attacking him (with one such attack resulting in Sabo's missing tooth).** _

_**“It's been five years since we started it. We worked hard.”** _

_**“I wonder how much we need to get a pirate ship,” Sabo said wistfully.** _

_**“'A pirate ship'?!” came a voice from below.** _

_**Both boys jolted, glancing at each other in surprise. Sabo kicked the top of the secret opening back into place before he and Ace peered over the edge of the branch to see some small brat waving up at them.** _

_**“You guys! Are you gonna become pirates?! I'm gonna become one, too!”** _

  


_**Sometimes Sabo wished Ace was less complicated, wanting to face the lower scum Bluejam Pirates on his own, even after Luffy was freed from his bonds and ready to be rushed away, like they'd planned in the first place. Of course Sabo couldn't leave his other half behind. Together they managed to beat Porchemy and escape. Sabo patched Luffy up to the best of his abilities and stood back with Ace as the younger boy bawled his eyes out. Sabo wasn't quite sure about what to do, but Ace yelled at him to shut up.** _

_**“Stop crying already!” the freckled boy growled. “I don't like cowards or people who cry a lot!”** _

_**Luffy clamped up so quickly that Sabo almost jumped. “Um...” Luffy choked out. “Thank you! For... For helping me!”** _

_**Then he started crying again.** _

_**“You...!” Ace began.** _

_**“Whoa-whoa,” Sabo soothed. “He's just being thankful.”** _

_**A bit more interrogation revealed that Luffy kept quiet about their treasure's whereabouts because he wanted Ace to be his friend.** _

_**“Being lonely is more painful than getting hurt!” he claimed.** _

_**Sabo agreed, recalling his life before the Grey Terminal, and before Ace.** _

_**“Is it easy for you when I'm around?” Ace asked quietly.** _

_**“Uh-huh.” Luffy nodded.** _

_**“It's hard without me?”** _

_**Another firm nod and noise of agreement.** _

_**“Do you want me to...live?”** _

_**Sabo lifted his gaze from the ground. He knew about Ace's parentage and he also knew that Ace sometimes didn't feel like he deserved the life he was given, that it wasn't good that he was born. The ex-noble was also sad that he couldn't make Ace feel wanted by himself.** _

_**“Of course I do!” Luffy huffed, and suddenly he moved near the top of Sabo's short list of 'People I Like,' below Ace, of course.** _

_**Watching Ace and Luffy begin bickering, Sabo couldn't help but smile. He was sure they would be alright in the end.** _

  


_**They found him. He couldn't believe they found him.** _

_**“Stop it!” he cried, straining to break free from the thick arm wrapped around his neck and holding him above the ground.** _

_**Luffy and Ace laid on the ground, glaring at the men surrounding them. He was so scared, but not for himself – for them. He feared for their lives.** _

_**“Sabo...” Luffy called, his voice weak in a way Sabo had never heard and wished he never had to.** _

_**“Give Sabo back!” Ace demanded, never thinking about himself – the perfect example of an older brother.** _

_**“What, you little shit? Do you want more?!” one of the men sneered, lifting Ace by the front of his shirt and pulling back a fist.** _

_**“Stop it!” Sabo yelled again, but it was useless. His breath caught in his throat as Ace was struck hard – these men didn't hold back, even against children – and he was sure he'd start crying if it wasn't for the fact that he wasn't going to earn the title of crybaby like Luffy, and if he started crying, it would just scare Luffy more and make Ace do even stupider things than just stand up to the jerks.** _

_**“I'm okay...” Ace huffed, waving off Luffy's concern as he was always prone to do.** _

_**“Give him back, Bluejam!” Luffy shouted.** _

_**“What do you mean 'give him back'? Sabo is my son.”** _

_**Sabo felt chills spread down his spine at the voice of his father. Out of the corner of his eye he could see Outlook, with a cloth held over his face as if the Grey Terminal and Sabo's brothers would corrupt him if he breathed the same air as them.** _

_**“How dare you two tempt Sabo to run away?”** _

_**Sabo twisted to glare at his father. He wouldn't let his brothers be blamed for his decision – he was man enough to take any punishment handed out for his disappearance from home. “Nobody tempted me! I ran away of my own will!”** _

_**“You stay out of this!” his father ordered, then turned his attention away from him as if to dismiss him. “I'll leave the rest up to you, pirates.”** _

_**“Of course, mister,” Bluejam replied.** _

_**Sabo was disgusted that even pirates fell to the whims of corrupt noblemen like Outlook.** _

_**“We will take care of these two so they won't bother your boy again.”** _

_**That was the last thing Sabo wanted. If he'd known that this would happen – if he'd known that his happiness would lead to endangering Luffy and Ace – he would've returned home without a fuss, if only to spare them the agony of losing him. And as the pirate lifted his blade, Sabo panicked. So he spoke quickly, hardly thinking before speaking.** _

_**“Wait a minute, Bluejam! Dad, that's enough! I understand!”** _

_**Bluejam released him and he landed on his feet under the cold gaze of his father.** _

_**“What do you understand?”** _

_**“Don't do it, Sabo!” Ace's voice was full of desperation, but Sabo didn't turn to look at him for fear that he wouldn't be able to go through with his plan.** _

_**"I'll live as you want, so please don't hurt these two!” He took a shaky breath. “I'm begging you. They're very important to me—they're my brothers!”**_

__****

__****

_**“Let's go home, Sabo,” his father said with a soft scoff.** _

_**With slow steps, as if he was being led to his own execution, Sabo approached his father, shoulders tense and head down.** _

_**“Hey! Don't go!” Ace cried.** _

_**Sabo's steps faltered and he could feel his shoulder begin to tremble as he fought not to cry.** _

_**“Run! You don't have to worry about us!”** _

_**Tears escaped, trailing down his face, no matter how hard he clenched his jaw or tried to hold it in. Didn't Ace see that if they died, Sabo would have no one left? Everything would go back to gray-scale, not only in his vision but in his life.** _

_**“You said you wanna live freely with us!”** _

_**A sob almost escaped. Ace wasn't making this easy to do, and his legs felt like cement, but Sabo slowly continued walking away from the life he'd made for himself outside of the corrupt city. He could hear his father begin to laugh, as if mocking Ace's attempts to draw him back. Sabo wanted to turn around and run to his brothers, just to spite his father, but knowing that that would just bring a painful end to Ace and Luffy's lives stopped him from rebelling.** _

_**“Are you gonna put an end to your dream, Sabo?!”** _

**That dream wouldn't be complete without you... _Sabo thought sorrowfully, but he didn't even look back._**

_**“Sabo!” Luffy called, voice choked with tears.** _

_**“Sabo!!” they both cried, and he felt like his heart was breaking in two.** _

_**When the nobles burned Grey Terminal, it was more than Sabo could take. He knew that his brothers would live, but he wished fervently that he could've been out there to make sure of it, even at the cost of his own life. But he wouldn't give up on his dreams anymore; he would just have to meet up with Ace and Luffy later, when they become the best pirates in the world, like he knew they could.** _

_**So he set out on the day that the Celestial Dragon was supposed to visit, when his parents and Stelly were out to greet the “esteemed” man with everyone else. He wouldn't stay behind bars for the rest of his life. He would be free, no matter the cost. But he hadn't expected there to be such corruption that came from so far across the sea. And as he desperately tried to pat out the flames – as he turned at the sound of another cannonball heading straight for him – as fear paralyzed his every movement – he wondered if Ace and Luffy would forgive him for dying.** _

_**Then there was nothing but pain and darkness.** _

  


_**Sabo was glad to be back at the Revolutionary base at Baltigo after a long mission, especially since near the end of it, a deep ache settled in his chest. Things were in an uproar, however, and when they stepped into the main debriefing room, everyone within was reading the most recent news. Likely about the war at Marineford. Even busy with a mission as they were, Sabo and Koala had heard about it.** _

_**“The ones who died in the war were...” one of the men began reading. “...the Emperor – Whitebeard...”** _

_**Sabo wasn't all that interested in finding out all the details of the war. He just wanted food and sleep.** _

_**“...and...Fire Fist Ace!”** _

_**Sabo felt the ache in his chest increase and everything seemed to fade around him. His vision blurred and the pale blue walls seemed to blur and turn into grey before returning to normal.** _

_**“But more importantly, Dragon** _ **-san _, look...” the man continued, his voice sounding faraway to Sabo. “Is it true?! Is Straw Hat Luffy your son?!”_**

_**Sabo's heart beat pounded loudly in his ears. He didn't know why, but those two names were resonating with him.** _

_**“Hm? Yes, he is,” Dragon replied.** _

_**“What?!” everyone in the room exclaimed in shock.** _

_**Sabo grabbed one of the newspapers that sat in a pile on the table in the middle of the room. He felt like his actions weren't his own, as if his movements were being controlled by an outside force. His breathing came in shaky gasps and his hands trembled as he unfolded the paper. His eyes widened slightly and he felt sweat begin beading on his face.** _

**“Fire Fist Ace Dies,” _the newspaper headline read in bold letters beneath the portrait picture of a dark haired man with freckles and a mischievous smile._**

_"Ace! Luffy! We gotta set out to sea someday!” It was his own voice, from when he was a child, alight with excitement. “Let's get out of his country and live freely!”_

_“I'm gonna become a pirate...” A boy stood at the edge of a cliff, the vision of him blurry and his words echoing. “...and defeat others and become infamous! It'll be the only proof of my life!”_

_Sabo didn't know how he knew, but he knew that this boy wasn't always so passionate about a subject; it erased all the lingering darkness and doubt he seemed to carry around with him._

_**Sabo felt like he was underwater, struggling to breath. Sweat – or was it tears – dripped from his face, dotting the face of Ace on the front page.** _

_“It doesn't matter if all the people in the world reject me or despise me!” The boy's face suddenly became clear and despite how young he was, there was no mistaking it: this boy was Ace, and Sabo had known him. “I'll become a great pirate and show them what I can do!”_

_**Sabo slammed the newspaper onto the table, his hands on either side, holding him up as he shook, pain increasing in his temples, throbbing in time to his heart. He could feel the gazes of a few people in the room, but he couldn't calm down or bring himself to care as he wheezed, unable to take a deep breath to rid himself of the darkening in his vision.** _

_**“Sabo** _ **-kun _, what's wrong?!” Koala asked in a concerned voice from behind him. “You're acting strange!”_**

_**More droplets appeared on the newspaper and this time he knew he was crying. He had never cried before, not even as a child, and small whimpers were escaping from him that he couldn't stop.** _

_**“I can't believe that Ace was Gold Roger's son...” one of the others mumbled. “He was the biggest threat to the Navy so they wanted to get rid of him at any cost.”** _

_“Did you guys know?!” Ace popped the cork out of the bottle of sake he snagged from Dadan's stash._

_**“They say Akainu punched a hole right through his body!”** _

_**Sabo felt his chest tighten and it became even harder to breath because what a terrible fate Ace received and Sabo wasn't even there to try and stop it!** _

_“We can become brothers if we exchange this cup of sake,” Ace continued, pouring sake into the three red cups he'd brought along._

_“Brothers? Really?!” Luffy asked excitedly._

_“When we become pirates, we might not be on the same ship but our brotherhood will always be with us!” He lifted one of the cups, the red ceramic glimmering in the sunlight. “Wherever you are, whatever you do, we'll always be bonded together!” Sabo and Luffy followed Ace's lead, lifting their own cups. “So from now on,” Ace said, smiling – he was so happy, happier than Sabo remembered him ever being, “we're brothers!"_

_They tapped their cups together as Sabo and Luffy cried out with an affirming, “Yeah!!!”_

_**Sabo felt a scream rising up from within – it came out strangled through his tears as he stumbled away from the table as his knees weakened, the brown wood turning dull, then he leaned over the table, struggling to stay up.** _

_**“Are you alright, Sabo?!” Hack asked.** _

_**He tried to push himself up and away from the table; he needed to get away. He needed to find someplace to be alone and come in terms with the fact that his soulmate was gone. He choked on tears and air as he slid back from the table, the newspaper fluttering to the ground, and the shrill wail that escaped him roared in his ears, mingling with his heart beat. He heard Koala and Hack calling for him, but he barely registered it as his legs began to give out.** _

**Now I know! _Even his thoughts came to him with the trembling of tears._ The one who died wasn't some unknown pirate... _His forgotten childhood flashed through his mind._ He wasn't just some threat in the Pirate Era that needed to be eliminated! Ace is my...brother!**

_**The ceiling went from pale blue to gray-almost-white as he collapsed on the ground and everything went black.** _

  


He hadn't been able to do anything while his brothers were stuck in the middle of a war and Ace died, but now... Now he was in the Colosseum, clad in his younger brother's previous disguise as 'Lucy', and fighting against Blackbeard's crewmate, Burgess, one of Doflamingo's Executives, Diamante, and Rebecca, the granddaughter of the old King Riku. The weirdo who was obsessed with his brother, Bar-something-or-other, was also there, but he wasn't a concern, since he didn't want Ace's Devil Fruit for himself. Besides, he was preoccupied with protecting Rebecca like he was told. 

When chaos was aroused by the transformation of toys into people, he decided it was time to make his move. He cloaked his forearms in Armament and buried his fists into the arena, putting enough strength into it to crack the whole foundation, even beneath the water. 

“Dragon Claw Fist! Dragon...Breath!” 

The ring fell apart at the seams, rubble whipped around the resulting whirlpool. Sabo stood from his crouched position, eyes scanning the clogged water. Finally, what he'd been waiting for appeared. The Fighting Fish with the chest chained to its back. He hopped onto another surfacing fish and rode it until the two were close enough for him to swap rides. Once on the correct Fish's back, he shoved his fingers into the seams of the chest and tore it apart. He snagged the Mera Mera no Mi out of the air and landed where he had begun, holding the fruit high with a grin. 

“Everybody's out of the ring!” he announced. “I'm the winner!” 

“What?!” the announcer squeaked. 

Sabo allowed his haki to fade as he brought the fruit closer to himself. “You said the one who gets this will be the winner!” 

Gatz seemed to choke on air. “The Mera Mera no Mi!” 

Sabo's heart began to race as he gazed upon his brother's – his soulmate's – Devil Fruit. “It's all mine, isn't it?” He could hardly believe he got his hands on it. 

“Th... The champion! The champion!” Gatz cried in the background. “I know now isn't the time, but the one who got the Mera Mera no Mi by taking advantage of this mess is...the biggest dark horse of this competition – Lucy! He is the champion!!”

Sabo finally lifted the Devil Fruit to his mouth, hand shaking almost imperceptibly, both from anxiousness and excitement. He took a bite and swallowed thickly, wishing he hadn't had to chew before hand because it was... “Disgusting!” he gagged.

He heard a choked off cry and glanced over to find Bartolomeo, with Rebecca's arms wrapped haphazardly around his neck, falling towards the water. He was quick to launch himself towards them, looping an arm around Rebecca's waist. He landed on a stray piece of rubble and used it to jump back into the air. He was going to need the height to do what he was planning. Bartolomeo gave a dazed plea for help, but Sabo bluntly told him to take care of himself, he was a man, wasn't he?

“I'm gonna make one more attack, so watch out,” he called down as an afterthought, deciding Luffy might not be happy if he burned the rooster-head.

“What?!” the man yelped.

Sabo removed the fake, scratchy beard-and-mustache and sunglasses, then the plumed helmet. He felt much better without the confines of the disguise. He gazed at his hand, briefly wondering how he was supposed to go about triggering the Devil Fruit ability, but then he felt it, something bright and warm in his very soul, and a small smirk tugged at the corners of his lips as he stretched his right hand towards the sky and clenched his fist, flames sparking to life around it.

“Ow, it's hot!” he gasped. “I really can generate a fire!” But as he gazed upon the crackling and growing fire, he realized that while the flames were certainly hot, they weren't like the flames that burned him as a child. “No, it's just my imagination,” he breathed with a hint of awe in his voice. “It's not hot! I am a fire now!”

He wondered if Ace felt so elated upon first getting his Devil Fruit ability.

“Ace!” The flames strengthened, as if to respond to the name of their old master. “I hereby take over your ability!” His mind flashed back to when he first read the news of Ace's death. “I never wanna go through that again. So...I will save Luffy's life that you saved with your life!”

 _Luffy!_ he thought. _You just take out the enemies in front of you and become the King of the Pirates._

 _“I promise! I... I will never die!”_ came a whisper in the back of his mind.

“Ace! We're gonna advance seeking freedom!”

The fire roared, and then it happened. Starting as a small spark, color erupted from the flickering source of heat, overwhelming Sabo's senses as the blue of the sky, the tan of the Colosseum arena, and, most importantly, the gleaming gold and rust colored fire took the forefront of his attention.

Rebecca began to say something, but Sabo could hardly make out her voice through the echoes of familiar laughter in his mind, the static-like sound of the fire, and the absolute need to officiate his bond with his brother's ability.

“Here I go!”

He wound his fist back, letting the flames collect air and grow.

_“Hiken!"_

He thrust his fist forward and the fire obeyed, arching towards the ring below. It obliterated rubble and hissed as it came into contact with the remaining water. But he knew it made it all the way down when the foundation of the ring shattered and the water, rubble, and the three other gladiators from the ring dropped down into the basement. The fire evaporated in a large cloud of steam.

**Author's Note:**

> **A/N: *Koala is one of those people who don't have a soulmate and thus have been born with the ability to see colors.**   
>  **Also, you won't believe how much time it took to decide on how Sabo got back his colors! At first, I was gonna just have it that when he ate the Devil Fruit, he got them back, but that was boring. So then I was gonna have it be when he first sparked up the flames, but in the episode, he wasn't looking at his hand until after the flames were burning for a few seconds, and it didn't seem special enough, so in the end, when he claimed Ace's will and ability.**   
>  **Another thing: Sabo didn't lose his colors as soon as Ace died because he didn't even remember Ace was his soulmate, so there's that explanation.**


End file.
